Thursday, August 2

Masterbox has long been making figures from the non-standard markets, post-apocalypse, truck drivers & their gals, ladies "on the scene" & fantasy figures from a far future and past. To add to their American frontier series we have made two of their kits featuring American Indians as the main focus of these sets.

Masterbox has created many kits for their series of American frontier scenes featuring the men and horses of the US Army and the men, women and horses of the native tribes of that country in the XIXth century.

Masterbox calls this their "Indian Wars" series, and apart from PC concerns, this is what we will be calling it in this review. These two kits that we are looking at today feature two figures each, both kits are made from injection moulded plastic, and both are designed to be either used by themselves, or in conjunction with the other Indian tribe sets or as opposing figures in to the Army soldiers we talked about.

This is an impressive set of figures to date from this company, dynamic poses with some great artwork, but how would these two kits shape up to these already released figures? Let's look at them both, first in the box, then I will make them up for you to see what they look like.OK let's go - first shot is - "First Shot"

The black and white box with the usual very high standard of box art from Masterbox is an end opening cardboard container, a plastic bag seals the figure sprue inside. On the rear of the box are the instructions, well as little as you may need, there are the part numbers and the colour call out from several colour manufacturers including the colours that the layman might call them. I would think that you could shade these in pretty any colour that you may like, there were several different tribes who used many colours in their dress and appearance.

There are two figures on this, what looks to me as a cut-down half of a larger sprue. Each figure has its own "half" on the sprue, and it looks like this might have been a larger one made into a smaller, two figure set for this scene. The figures are not really a complex construction, and you can't really get lost here. The plastic itself is without that much flash, only a little seam needing to be trimmed off the sides of the mould. You can see here in this picture that the details of the feathers and clothing is nicely picked up by the eye while the faces are a passable toa good standard.

Here is the "shooter" put together, with his head pointing straight down the barrel as he looks down his gun to fire. For some reason, he is using his spear hand to steady the rifle. The leather tassels on his pants could be accentuated by a knife to trim them, but they are pretty nice as is, while the feather, the head and face (with a frown) and his ammunition bag that sits on his rear are also nicely detailed.

The second figure is kneeling to one side watching his comrade take the shot. This man has a passive body language and he leans on his knee with his hand on the other knee as he watches on. To me, he looks like the older of the two, just his face and the fact that he has both a bow and a rifle, he almost looks like he is teaching the shooter or advising him on how or where to shoot.

A knife, his lever action Remington, his arrows, quiver and bow and his long animal skin clothing make his look like a nice figure for your diorama.

OK, net up is the second kit of this review - the "Indian War Series Raid"

The second kit that we have seen in this series, this one shares many facets of the previous kit that we have looked at. The box art is again excellent, the black and white container opening up at the ends to reveal this half-sprue (is it a half sprue when that is all you need for the two figures?) and they are both contained in a single plastic bag for safety so you don't lose anything.

The rear of the box again has the assembly diagram, the sprue tree and the painting suggestions in all the major shades including the shades in the "lay-man" colours, although again, the colours could well be anything you choose.

The single sprue houses again two figures, each on their half of the half sprue. One wonders whether this was ever supposed to ever be a larger sprue with more figures? The scene is ok for just these two though. The plastic on the sprue has a slight seam again that needs to be removed from the parts. Again we have some nice details around the leather clothing and tassels, the feathers, details ont he sheilds and the hands, fingers and faces, which are passable to good again.

This first figure is seen creeping forward, scouting his prey, be it man or beast - he is seen with his war axe in his right hand and his feather coloured shield in his left.

His wrapped bow and arrows are over his shoulder while his leather pants cover his lower body and it looks like he has some nice leather shoes on - moccasins?

The face you can see here is a good replica for a native American man, and his hands as they are clasping his gear and musculature is nicely moulded in this sculpt.

The second man is seen stalking ahead, maybe by himself or with his partner in this kit. The brave carries his bow in his left hand. While he leans down on to his right-hand side looking on into the distance - maybe at an enemy, maybe at an animal he is hunting.

The brave's small shield and arrow quiver is seen with lovely detail, feathers and tassels, platted hair and the flattened nose of this figure really bringing him to life.

Again, great detail on the shield, quiver and the folds of the material of his clothing are very nicely made up. His body language as he leans over to gently prop himself on the ground low is great.

OK, so here they are - all four of them made up. These two sets with two figures each only took about ten minutes for each figure to make and to clean up. Just a little seam work on each to get rid of and you may have some seam work on the joins of the naked torsos of the men to deal with.

I like thee two kits, I do think that only two in a box is a slight release, but then again these are pretty cheap to buy, more so than a four-figure set at most shops so that cancels that argument out pretty much.

I think Masterbox make some great dramatic figures in some nice poses. they have continued on here, with some nice work. the faces are not quite up to your resin top of the shelf effort but the price is not that high either.

Easy to make, to detail and to get ready for paint. Int he right hands these could look even better. I think these are two great kits from Masterbox.

Adam Norenberg

Thank you to Masterbox for sending these figures to us to make and review...